Pressure-medium container.



H. M. MGGASLIN.

PRESSURE MEDIUM CONTAINER.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 2, 1909.

1, 02,373 Patented June 4, 1912.

2 SHEETSSHEET 1.

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PRESSURE MEDIUM CONTAINER. APELIOATION FILED JUNE 2, 1909.

1,028,373 Patented June 4, 1912.

2 SHEETS SHEET 2.

UTED STATES HARRY M. MCCASLIN, OF ELMIRA, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR T0AMERICAN-LA FRANCE FIRE ENGINE COMPANY, OF ELMIRA, NEW YORK, ACORPORATION OF NEW YORK.

PRESSURE-MEDI UM CONTAINER.

Patented June 4, 1912.

Original application filed February 21, 1908, Serial No. 417,150.Divided and this application filed June 2,

1909. Serial No. 499,808.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HARRY M. MoCAsLIN, a citizen of the United States,and resident of Elmira, in the county of Chemung and State of New York,have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Pressure- MediumContainers, of which the following is a specification.

My present application constitutes a division of my prior application,entitled fireextinguishing apparatus, filed February 21st, 1908, SerialNo. 417,150 Patent No. 995,978, issued June 20, 1911. In said priorapplication I have described and claimed a fire extinguisher providedwlth a novel form of pressure medium container, and the container itselfforms the subject matter of the present invention.

While this container is primarily designed and suited to form a portionof a fire extinguishing apparatus, it will of course be understood thatit is capable of more general use and may, in fact, be employed in anyapparatus where it is desirable to apply pressure in this manner.

For the .purposes of illustration I shall show and describe thecontainer as applied to fire extinguishing apparatus.

In the drawings Figure 1 is a sectional elevation illustrating thecontainer, or cart-ridge, as it is commonly termed in this art, appliedto the device for charging it. Fig. 2 is a transverse sectional viewtaken on the line II-II of Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is an underneath view of theoperating stem shown in Fig. 1. Fig. 4 is a top View of the sealing nut.Fig. 5 is a sectional elevation of a slight-1y modified form ofcartridge shown applied to adjacent parts of a fire extinguisher top.Fig. 6 is a sectional elevation illustrating this form of cartridge andthe charging device, and Fig. 7 is a side view of the sealing nutpreferably used with this form of cartridge or container.

One form of cartridge is shown at 17, of cylindrical form and consistingof a drawn steel tubing, permanently sealed at the bottom as by means ofthey welded bottom disk 18. A centrally apertured disk 19 is fastened tothe upper end of the cylinder and is centrally screw threaded to receivea neck 20 having the central supply and discharge orifice 21. In theside of the neck 20 is a charging socket 22, screw threaded to receivethe charging pipe 23 (see Fig. l), which may be connected to a supply ofcarbonic acid under high pressure. Central of the neck 20 is a chamber24 communicating with the socket 22 as most clearly appears in- Fig. 1.It will be most convenient to first describe the means of charging thecartridge.

When a cartridge is to be charged, the socket of the neck 20 is screwedupon the end of charging pipe 23, bringing the socket in communicationthrough the passages 25, 24, 21, with the interior of the cartridge. Asealing nut 26 is screwed into the internal screw thread of the upperend of the neck 20 and has attached to its lower end and sealing itsaxial chamber 27 a brass disk or diaphragm 28. It will be seen that whenthis sealing nut is in the upper position shown in Fig. 1, the chamber24 is open to both the passages 25 and 21 and the char mgv pipe 23 isthus in communicationwit the cartridge, but when the sealing nut isscrewed down the sealing disk 28 covers both of the passages 25, 21, andeffectually seals the cartridge. An annular lead gasket 29 placed on thebottom of the chamber 24 with apertures in the line of the passages 25,21, perfects the sealing action of the disk .28 when the sealing nut isdown. I do not, however, detpend entirely upon the sealing nut 26 andisk 28- when. filling or charging the cartridge, but by preferenceattach to the neck a filling cap 30 having the internal screw threadengaging an external thread on the neck 20, and seating when screweddown tight, against a lead gasket 31, interposed between its lower edgeand a shoulder 011 the said neck. An operating stem 32 extends axiallythrough the filling cap and throu h a stufiing box 33 thereon, and isp-rovi ed'at its upper end with a nut or paned surface 34, and at itslower end within the chambered portion of the cap with a head 35, fittedto engage rectangular or otherwise paned exterior of the sealing nut26.- When the filling cap is applied to the neck of the cartridge andthe latter screwed upon the filling pipe 23, the operating stem 34 isturned to raise the sealing nut 26 to the position shown in Fig. 1, thusopening the communication between the pipe 23 and the cartridge andcarbonic acid gas under suitable pressure is supplied thereto undercontrol of any usual or preferred valve mechanism. When a sufficientquantity of carbonic acid in compressed or liquid" form has entered thecartridge, the supply is stopped, the stem 32 is turned in reversedirection, the sealing nut turned down so as to force the sealing disk28 tightly against the upper ends of passages 25, 21, and the fillin capand stem may now be removed and t e cartridge removed from the fillingpipe 23, leaving the cartridge thoroughly sealed and in form suitablefor use or Shlpment.

In Fig. 5 a cartridge is shown applied to the extinguisher for use.Before the head or cover 7 is applied to the extinguisher, the neck 20of the cartridge is screwed within the neck 10 of said head, in whichposition the lower end of a sliding stem 37 engages within the chamber27 of the sealing nut, bringing the teat 38 on 1t s lower endimmediately above the sealing disk 28. The stem 37 has a head 39 with asufliciently broad upper surface to enable it to be struck sharply bythe hand without discomfort.

when its lower end is to be used for perforating the disk. The stem hasa sufficiently loose fit in the axial opening 40 of the head 7 to enablegradual changes of pressure occurring in the extinguisher to communicatewith suflicient freedom through said axial seat, and thus prevent thatgradual evacuation, or siphoning of the extinguisher which would becaused by repeated changes of pressure of the confined air in theextinguisher due to temperature changes. The stem has the enlargedportion 41 immediately above the teat 38 substantially filling the crosssectional area of the chamber 27 so that when the stem has been strucksmartly down and the disk 28 perforated and the confined gas within thecartridge forces its way upthrough the aperture in the disk and againstthe lower endof the stem and the tapered lower surface of theenlargement 41, the stem will be thrown up to clear the teat 38 from thesealing disk and force the upper or shouldered surface 42 of theenlargement 41 against the lower end of the axial seat 40. The engagingsurfaces of the shoulder 42 and the lower end of axial seat 40 arepreferably made with a ground joint so that at this point theextinguisher is effectually sealed to prevent the escape of the confinedpressure, which is all thus directed to operation, through the openings11, on

. the surface of the extinguisher fluid.

It will be seen that the apparatus explained is capable of subjection tothe highest tests to obtain a suflicient safety factor, to which end thecart-ridge, after assembling and attachment of the neck, is subjected inpractice to a heavy hydrostatic pressure of say six thousand pounds tothe square inch. When the sealing nut with the disk seal have beenintroduced, they are tested to a hydrostatic pressure of say thirtyfivehundred pounds, the purpose being to have the sealing disk set at suchstrength as to yield first to undue expansion and correspondingly highpressure within the cartridge so as to allow the gradual escape of thecontained pressure within the cartridge and avoid a rupture of the mainbody thereof which might be dangerous. The disk seal, therefore, acts asa safety blow-out, as a permanent seal, as a temporary seal duringcharging, and as a means for gradually letting off the pressure into theextinguisher when the latter is put in use.

In a preferred embodiment of my invention shown in Figs. 5, 6 and 7, thetransfer of the filling socket from the cartridge neck to the fillingcap, enables the shortening of the neck and the simplifying of itsconstruction somewhat. As shown here, the cartridge neck 20 is madewithout a filling socket and shortened in height. This construction doesaway with the port 25. The socket 22 is made in the filling cap 30 (seeFig. 6), and when the filling pipe 23 is connected thereto and thepressure turned on to fill the cartridge, the fluid finds its way fromthe interior of the cap 30 down between the outer walls of nut 26 andthe inner face of its seat in the neck 20the outer wall of the nut beingto this end preferably made with one or more paned surfaces or ports 25(Fig. 7) to permit the passage of the fluid from the upper part of thefilling cap to the chamber 24 within the neck 20 below the diaphragm 28,and thence to the interior of the cartridge. Furthermore, the diaphragmbeing only attached at one point (or at two diametrically oppositepoints), by a drop of solder, to the under surface of the nut 28, itwill readily permit the fluid to pass downward by bowing as shown inFig. 6, while the filling is going on, and thus enables the fluid, whichreaches the chamber 27 of the nut by passing through the loose fitbetween the head of the nut 26 and the wrench head 35 of the fillingstem 32, to pass on to the cartridge. Further free passage of the fluidto the interior of chamber 27 is preferably supplied by apertures 25through the wrench head 35.

It will be apparent that while I prefer to use all of the devices shownfor insuring the passage of fluid from the interior of the cap, to theinterior of the container 17, some may be used without the others.

With this form of the invention, the operation of filling and sealingthe cartridge is performed in the same way as with that first described,but it will be seen that when the sealing nut is turned down it onlyseals the one passageviz., that leading into the cartridge body. Aconsiderable saving of cost and additional simplicity of constructionand certainty of operation are effected by putting the fillingconnection only on the relatively few filllng caps at the chargingstation instead of on all the cartridges sent out with individualextinguishers.

While I have shown and described certain forms of my invention, it isobvious that the same may be modified in many ways without departingfrom the essential principles thereof which are set forth in theappended claims.

I claim:

1. A device of the character described, comprising in combination acontainer for compressed fluid, having a fluid passage, a sealing nuttherein having a recess forming a continuation of said fluid passage,and a puncturable sealing diaphragm constituting a control valve carriedby said sealing nut and seated and unseated thereby to close and openthe container during charging.

2. A device of the character described, comprising in combination acontainer for compressed fluid, having a fluid'passage,

a sealing nut therein having a recess forming a continuation of saidfluid passage, a puncturable sealing diaphragm controlled by saidsealing nut and seated and unseated thereby to close and open thecontainer during charging, a filling cap adapted to be secured upon saidcontainer to prevent the escape of charging fluid into the atmosphereduring charging, and an operating member fon said sealin nut, having itsoperating head disposed wlthin the filling cap and its operating stemextending through the filling cap to a point without. I

3. Apparatus of the character described, comprislng in combination, acontainer for compressed fluid having a fluid passage, a sealing nuthaving a fluid passage in communication therewith, a sealing diaphragmcontrolled by said sealing nut to establish or close communicationbetween said passages and a filling cap having an interior chambercommunicating with said sealing nut passage and having means ofconnection with an external source of compressed fluid.

4. Apparatus of the character described, comprising in combination acontainer for compressed fluid havinga fluid passage, a seahng nuthaving a fluid passage 1n communication therewith, a sealing diaphragmcontrolledby said sealing nut to establish or close the communicationbetween said passages, a filling cap having an interior chambercommunicating with said sealing nut passage and having means ofconnection with an external source of compressed fluid and an operatingmember for said sealing nut having its operating head disposed withinsaid interior chamber of the filling cap and its operating stemextending through the filling cap to a point without, whereby saidsealing nut may be operated vduring the charging of the container tocontrol said sealing diaphragm.

HARRY M. MoCASLIN.

Witnesses:

A. E. RHODES, WM. B. EDSON.

